外研社必修五课本学习知识reading原文.doc

-! Module 1 British and American English Words, words, words British and American English are different in many ways. The first and most obvious way is in the vocabulary. There are hundreds of different words which are not used on the other side of the Atlantic, or which are used with a different meaning. Some of these words are well known — Americans drive automobiles down freeways and fill up with gas; the British drive cars along motorways and fill up with petrol. As a tourist, you will need to use the underground in London or the subway in New York, or maybe you will prefer to get around the town by taxi (British) or cab (American). Chips or French fries? But other words and expressions are not so well known. Americans use a flashlight, while for the British, its a torch. The British queue up; Americans stand in line. Sometimes the same word has a slightly different meaning, which can be confusing. Chips, for example, are pieces of hot fried potato in Britain; in the States chips are very thin and are sold in packets. The British call these crisps. The chips the British know and love are French fries on the other side of the Atlantic. Have or have got? There are a few differences in grammar, too. The British say Have you got ...? while Americans prefer Do you have ...? An American might say My friend just arrived, but a British person would say My friend has just arrived. Prepositions, too, can be different: compare on the team, on the weekend (American) with in the team, at the weekend (British). The British use prepositions where Americans sometimes omit them (Ill see you Monday; Write me soon!). Colour or color? The other two areas in which the two varieties differ are spelling and pronunciation. American spelling seems simpler: center, color and program instead of centre, colour and programme. Many factors have influenced American pronunciation since the first settlers arrived four hundred years ago. The accent, which is most similar to British English, can be heard on the East Coast of the US. When the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw made the famous remark that the British and the Americans are two nations divided by a common language, he was obviously thinking about the differences. But are they really so important? After all, there is probably as much variation of pronunciation within the two countries as between them. A Londoner has more difficulty understanding a Scotsman from Glasgow than understanding a New Yorker. Turn on the TV Some experts believe that the two varieties are moving closer together. For more than a century communications across the Atlantic have developed steadily. Since the 1980s, with satellite TV and the Internet, it has been possible to listen to British and American English at the flick of a switch. This non-stop communication, the experts think, has made it easier for British people and Americans to understand each other. But it has also led to lots of American words and structures passing into British English, so that some people now believe that British English will disappear. However, if you turn on CNN, the American TV network, you find newsreaders and weather forecasters all speaking with different accents — American, British, Australian, and even Spanish. One of the best-known faces, Monita Rajpal, was born in Hong Kong, China, and grew up speaking Chinese and Punjabi, as well as English. This international dimension suggests that in the future, there are going to be many "Englishes", not just two main varieties. But the message is "Dont worry." Users of English will all be able to understand each other — wherever they are. Module 2 The Human Traffic Signal The road At 3,500 metres, La Paz, in Bolivia, is the highest capital in the world. Life is hard at high altitude, and the mountains make communications difficult. Many roads are in bad condition and accidents are frequent. One road in particular, which goes north from La Paz, is considered the most dangerous road in the world. On one side the mountains rise steeply; on the other side there is a sheer drop, which in places is hundreds of metres deep. Although there is not a lot of traffic, on average, one vehicle comes off the road every two weeks. The drop is so great that anyone inside the vehicle is lucky to survive. In theory, the road can only be used by traffic going uphill from 8 in the morning, and by traffic coming downhill from 3 in the afternoon. But in practice, few drivers respect the rules. The man But thanks to one man, the death toll has fallen. Timoteo Apaza is a gentle 46-year-old man who lives in a village near the most dangerous part of the road, known locally as la curva del diablo (the Devils Bend). Timoteo has an unusual job — he is a human traffic signal. Every morning he climbs up to the bend with a large circular board in his hand. The board is red on one side and green on the other. Timoteo stands on the bend and directs the traffic. When two vehicles approach from opposite directions they cant see each other, but they can see Timoteo. Timoteo is a volunteer. No one asked him to do the job, and no one pays him for it. Sometimes drivers give him a tip, so that he has just enough money to live on. But often they just pass by, taking the human traffic signal for granted. The reason why he does it So why does he do it? Before he volunteered to direct the traffic, Timoteo had had lots of jobs. He had been a miner and a soldier. Then one day while he was working as a lorry driver he had a close encounter with death. He was driving a lorry load of bananas when he came off the road at a bend and fell three hundred metres down the mountain. Somehow he survived. He was in hospital for months. Then, a few years later, he was called out in the night to help pull people out of a bus which had crashed at la curva del diablo. This last experience had a profound effect on Timoteo. He realised that he was lucky to be alive himself, and felt that it was his mission in life to help others. And so every morning, week in, week out, from dawn to dusk, Timoteo takes up his place on the bend and directs the traffic. Module 3 The Steamboat There was a big storm after midnight and the rain poured down. We stayed inside the shelter we had built and let the raft sail down the river. Suddenly, by the light of the lightning, we saw something in the middle of the river. It looked like a house at first, but then we realized it was a steamboat. It had hit a rock and was half in and half out of the water. We were sailing straight towards it. "It looks as if itll go under soon," Jim said, after a couple of minutes. "Lets go and take a look," I said. "I dont want to board a sinking ship," said Jim, but when I suggested that we might find something useful on the boat, he agreed to go. So we paddled over and climbed on to the steamboat, keeping as quiet as mice. To our astonishment, there was a light in one of the cabins. Then we heard someone shout, "Oh please boys, dont kill me! I wont tell anybody!" A mans angry voice answered, "Youre lying. You said that last time. Were going to kill you." When he heard these words, Jim panicked and ran to the raft. But although I was frightened, I also felt very curious, so I put my head round the door. It was quite dark, but I could see a man lying on the floor, tied up with rope. There were two men standing over him. One was short, with a beard. The other was tall and had something in his hand that looked like a gun. "Ive had enough of you. Im going to shoot you now," this man said. He was obviously the one who had threatened the man on the floor. And it was a gun he had in his hand. "No, dont do that," said the short man. "Lets leave him here. The steamboat will sink in a couple of hours and hell go down with it." When he heard that, the frightened man on the floor started crying. "He sounds as if hes going to die of fright!" I thought. "I have to find a way to save him!" I crawled along the deck, found Jim, and told him what I had heard. "We must find their boat and take it away, then theyll have to stay here," I said. Jim looked terrified. "Im not staying here," he said. But I persuaded him to help me, and we found the mens boat tied to the other side of the steamboat. We climbed quietly in and as we paddled away we heard the two men shouting. By then we were a safe distance away. But now I began to feel bad about what we had done. I didnt want all three men to die. Module 4 The Magic of the Mask Think of carnival, and you think of crowds, costumes, and confusion. The sounds and sights change from one country to another but the excitement is the same everywhere. "Carnival" comes from two Latin words, meaning "no more meat". In Europe, where it began, carnival was followed by forty days without meat, as people prepared for the Christian festival of Easter. People saw Carnival as a last chance to have fun at the end of the winter season. Having fun meant eating, drinking, and dressing up. The most famous carnival in Europe was in Venice. At the beginning, it lasted for just one day. People ate, drank, and wore masks. As time passed, however, the carnival period was extended, so that it began just after Christmas. For weeks on end people walked round the streets wearing masks, doing what they wanted without being recognised. Ordinary people could pretend to be rich and important, while famous people could have romantic adventures in secret. Many crimes went unpunished. The government realised that wearing masks had become a problem. Their use was limited by laws, the first of which dates back to the fourteenth century. Men were not allowed to wear masks at night; and they were not allowed to dress up as women. In later times more laws were passed. People who wore masks could not carry firearms; and no one could enter a church wearing a mask. If they broke the laws, they were put into prison for up to two years. Finally, when Venice became part of the Austrian empire, at the end of the eighteenth century, masks were banned completely, and carnival became just a memory. But in the late 1970s the tradition was revived by students. They began making masks and organising parties, and threw bits of brightly coloured paper (called coriandoli) at tourists. The town council realised that carnival was good for business, and the festival was developed for tourists. Today, carnival in Venice is celebrated for five days in February. People arrive from all over Europe to enjoy the fun. Hotels are fully booked and the narrow streets are crowded with wonderful costumes. German, French and English seem to be the main languages. But the spirit of Venice carnival is not quite the same as the great American carnivals. If the key to Rio is music and movement, then in Venice it is the mystery of the mask. As you wander through the streets, you see thousands of masks — elegant or frightening, sad or amusing, traditional or modern — but you have no idea what the faces behind them look like. Nobody takes them off. If the masks come off, the magic is lost. Module 5 A Life in Sport They called him the prince of gymnasts. When he retired at the age of 26, he had won 106 gold medals in major competitions across the world. They included six out of seven gold medals at the 1982 World Championship, and three at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles (as well as two silver and a bronze). Li Ning was the best. When sports journalists met in 1999 to make a list of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of the twentieth century, Li Nings name was on it, together with footballer Pel and boxer Muhammad Ali. But even though he had won everything it was possible to win in his sport, Li Ning retired with the feeling that he had failed. He was disappointed because he had not performed well in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But it was this sense of failure that made him determined to succeed in his new life. A year after his retirement, Li Ning began a new career — as a businessman. But he didnt forget his sporting background. He decided to launch a new brand of sportswear, competing with global giants like Nike and Adidas. He made the unusual choice, for a Chinese person, of choosing his own name as the brand mark. The bright red logo is made up of the first two pinyin letters of Li Nings name, L and N. Li Nings sports clothes came onto the market at just the right time. The number of young people with money to spend was on the increase — and sport had never been so popular. Li Nings designs were attractive, and they had a major advantage over their better-known rivals — they were cheaper. A pair of Nike trainers, for example, could cost up to five times as much as a similar Li Ning product. Success for Li Ning was guaranteed, and it came quickly. In just a few years, Li Ning won more than fifty percent of the national market. Today a Li Ning product is purchased every ten seconds. But the clothes are not only worn on the athletics track or the football pitch. If you go into a school or university anywhere, the chances are you will see students in Li Ning tracksuits with the familiar logo. The company has also grown internationally. The Spanish and French gymnastics teams wear Li Ning clothes, while Italian designers are employed by the company to create new styles. Whenever Chinese athletes step out onto the track during the 2008 Olympics, they will be wearing Li Ning tracksuits. But Li Nings goal when he retired was not to make money. His dream was to open a school for gymnasts. He was able to do this in 1991. Since then, he has continued to help young people to achieve their sporting ambitions. Like Pel and Muhammad Ali before him, who have worked with the United Nations for childrens rights and peace, Li Ning has discovered that the work of a great sportsman does not finish when he retires from the sport. It starts. And if you are a great sportsperson, anything is possible, as Li Nings advertising slogan says. Module 6 Saving the Antelopes On a freezing cold day in January 1994, Jiesang Suonandajie found what he was looking for — a group of poachers who were killing the endangered Tibetan antelope. Jiesang knew he had to move quickly. He shouted to the poachers to put down their guns. Although surprised, the poachers had an advantage — there were more of them. In the battle which followed Jiesang was shot and killed. When his frozen body was found hours later, he was still holding his gun. He had given his life to save the Tibetan antelope. At the beginning of the twentieth century there were millions of antelopes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. By the 1990s the number had fallen to about 50,000. The reason is simple: the wool of the Tibetan antelope is the most expensive in the world. It is soft, light, and warm — the ideal coat fo